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Durham Regional Police boast biggest and best toy of all — an armoured personnel carrier: Hume

When Durham Regional Police took possession of their new “tactical rescue vehicle” recently, they seemed to be telling us the suburbs are a war zone.

Durham Regional Police’s new addition is a Hummer on steroids, Christopher Hume writes. The Canadian Forces used similar vehicles for war in Afghanistan. They’re designed to withstand the blast of an IED. Durham Police unveiled its new Tactical Rescue Vehicle (TRV) at the Colonel R.S. McLaughin Armoury. (March 8, 2013) (Sabrina Byrnes / Metroland)

Most of all, of course, the police love their guns, all kinds of guns, big and small, holstered or sawed-off. They also enjoy their Tasers, truncheons, pepper spray and those G-20 noise canons so loud your ears never stop ringing. Then they get to dress up in full-body armour, wear helmets and carry clear plastic shields like ancient heroes on the battlefield.

But the lucky lads of the Durham Regional Police now boast the biggest and best toy of all — a brand new “Tactical Rescue Vehicle (TRV).” The behemoth was donated to the force by General Dynamic Land Systems of London, Ont. It makes a fully-loaded military Hummer look like a Smart Car.

According to a Durham Police press release, “The bulletproof, seven-tonne vehicle will carry eight members of the Tactical Support Unit (TSU) and can reach speeds of up to 100 km/hr.”

Beat that Bill Blair!

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The Durham cops call their TRV “a new tool to deal with dangerous hostage-taking or armed and barricaded person calls.”

“This is a significant contribution to public and officer safety here in Durham Region,” said Chief Constable Mike Ewles last week, “and it gives us a new and immediate option in high-risk calls.”

Whatever those high-risk calls turn out to be, they’re unlikely to be like the sort of thing they face in the war zones where they’re typically deployed. Canadian Forces operate dozens of RG-31s, or variations thereof, and used them in Afghanistan. They are specially designed to deflect the blast of an IED.

In the literature, they are described as “a 4×4 multi-purpose mine-protected armoured personnel carrier.”

Heavy-duty is one thing; but this is heavy-handed.

Do the Durham cops know something the rest of us don’t? Is there something happening on the back-lotted streets of Oshawa, Whitby and Ajax that the rest of the GTA has missed? Is the situation so out of control that the police need a bombproof armoured personnel carrier?

Or was General Dynamics just being a good corporate citizen trying to lend a helping hand to those brave men and women fighting the War against Crime?

Perhaps Durham cops didn’t want to look a gift horse in the mouth, but they left no doubt what they really think of the people they serve, and it’s not flattering. The police have made it clear they expect the extreme violence of a battlefield and want to be prepared. Such fear and loathing may seem excessive, but better safe than sorry. Still, one can’t help but wonder when police laud the vehicle as a contribution to “public safety.”

We know suburban life can be tough, but since when has it become a war zone?

As well as seeming faintly ridiculous, the thought of an RG-31 full of cops tearing up the highways and cul-de-sacs of suburbia gives one pause.

But never let it be said that Durham’s finest aren’t willing to share their good fortune; they have generously offered to lend the vehicle to other police forces in their hour of need.

“It could be deployed to neighbouring jurisdictions,” the chief constable announced, “if those communities have shared resource agreements with the DRPS.”

Just think, if they’d had the TRV in 2010, we could have seen it in action on the streets of Toronto during the G-20 Summit. That would’ve been something to remember. In the meantime, we’ll have to wait until the fighting resumes in Durham.

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